Having the best gear is important. It like making a meal, when you make one you want to have the best ingredients possible to make sure it has the best taste it can. Every time I purchase equipment I always make sure I look up reviews and visit dj groups to figure out what they say about certain gear. 

When we started we would only use Technic Turntables but then fell I love with pioneer. We use pioneer controllers and never had any issues with them. For microphones, we use the industry standard Shure. We have wireless microphones and wired microphones. I believe in having both in ensure we can make announcements. For speakers I have tried different ones. We started off with Mackies since they looked good and they sounded good but we blew them out so we tried JBL. Jbl was with us for a long time. We have a pair of JBLs that can take the hot sun and keep on ticking. We decided to go with the qsc speakers because of their crisp and loud sound. It also has a 6 year warranty so for any reason we can get them serviced for free in that time period. I actually went to a speaker maintence shop and asked what speaker they see the least and they mentioned it was qsc. They are built to last. These little guys are 12 inches each but they sound like they are 24 inches. With two of them you can truly fill up a small gym. 

 The brain of my system is an Apple Mac Book Pro. I only use it to do Dj events. I don’t use it for anything else. It is never slows and it is so efficient. 

Right before new years I got to be part of a private party. It was from a family I djed before at a different venue and they wanted to celebrate different events since everyone was locked down for so long. Miss L gave me a good list to work with. She had a lot of songs she grew up listening to plus she had different family members share their list with her. It was a mix of old school and good dance music. We traveled from the 50s sock hop era with stops with 70s classic rock, and 90s dance. 

 The event was at the Double Tree at the Pruneyard in Campbell. They had a banquet room on the second floor. They had around 7 tables and there were under 30 folks in attendance. There was a dance floor there. It was cute since the staff wanted to put a table on the dance floor for appetizers and Miss L was not going to have it. She was like we are going to dance the whole night so please move the table elsewhere. She was right. Dancing was happening the whole night. Double Tree even had my silverware ready on my table but I did not have a chance to eat since there was always someone dancing. Typically, you play music with low to medium energy during dinner time but we were putting up the energy in high gear. 

  Venue space was nice and staff was very courtesy. Guests were polite and loved to dance. It was a good night!

I was all over the bay area for 3 holiday corporate events. Saturday we were doing a big internet company bash in Morgan hill. This is the 3rd event I have for the group. They gave me a lot of songs in their playlist of their liking. Mama mia served up a master meal. A few of the leaders spoke about achievements and talked about folks they wanted to hi light. We finished up the night on the dance floor.

The following day we were doing a corporate event in Fremont which was primarily Spanish music. This was the first corporate event where most of the music was Spanish. I started the event with a little xmas music then 15 min in when folks started showing up I then went with Spanish. I did throw in some old school classics in English. The boss was a young man and his assistant were running the events. They were running games for their employees for nice prizes. Later on they did a raffle and gave out prizes. The songs that got everyone grooving was cumbia and salsa.

Then on Thursday we had a real estate party. They know how to party and they did it on a weekday. It was at their office and they were very happy folks. It was supposed to be a 3 hour event but it was extended to an extra hour. It was all old school and r&b the whole night, No new music the past 5 years was played. There were no announcements and the theme was just to eat drink and be merry. All of them succeeded!

A few years back I had a student reach out since she was going to get married. It was a small ceremony in Los Gatos. She knew I was a dj so I was going to set up the sound for the ceremony and then do the reception. Then she asked if I could marry them. I never have done it before but they did not know any ministers and really wanted me to do it. So I went online and I was able to marry folks in California. As I teacher, I have no issues speaking in front of a crowd. We had a nice ceremony and the thought was I was in retirement as an officiant.

I get a lot of scam calls and I rarely answer a phone call when I don’t recognize the number. I would listen to the voicemail. I got one call then the caller called again. I felt it had to be important so I picked up. The couple was scheduled to be married at 5 today but their officiant backed out. The couple really wanted to get married today since it was their anniversary. I was scheduled to get my vaccine booster shot and to take care of baby.

I really wanted to help him out. Driving off to Gilroy would have been a lot of trouble for me since it was prime time at the freeway. He mentioned if we can do it via zoom. All I had to do was look for my script that I had and refreshed the names. I shared with the couple to see if they had any changes. The only change was they wanted their own vows. They got married in their car via zoom. You got to love technology!

After being shut down from any dances for a year and a half, high schoolers have been itching to dance. One of the main questions I had would songs from 2020 and 2021 be popular or would students be leaning toward the old school. Platforms like Tic Tok have brought back old school for the youngsters. Songs that you wouldn’t think students would know are songs students know the lyrics to. Have I seen any a change from pre covid events to current at the High School dance floors?

What hasn’t changed is the students take a while to warm up. Knowing this I have saved the beginning of the dance for the new and old pop songs that everyone knows. It’s not to get anybody dancing yet since I believe in saving the dessert for the packed dancefloor. At this time people are coming to the dance and seeing what is happening. At the events I did most students were either going to the food trucks or taking photos at the photo booth.

Some folks think the line dance is way cliché but it always works. The ones that the students really liked were the Cupid Shuffle and going old school with the YMCA. Those songs worked for all the 4 dances. Everyone was loving Miley Cyrus with Party in the USA and Justin Bieber’s Baby. Speaking of songs that students like to sing along to Taylor Swift was like magic with the students. Pitbull had a few hits on the student dancefloor with Tonight with Ne-yo and Fireball. I did notice Calvin Harris hits such as We Found Love and Feels so Close got everyone bouncing up and down. 

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 Homecoming at Lincoln was in the middle of the quad. They had an old school van as a photoboth and food trucks. They shared with me a diverse playlist. I started the night to work on the older tracks first. I have to be aware of not using all the good danceable songs so quickly. 

Students at Lincoln were ready to dance. They were really into Spanish music. It was nice to see everyone get into the Spanish music. 

The Songs that stuck out for Lincoln:

It seems like 2010 music is getting a jolt of life such as songs like Disturbia by Rihanna, Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO, Feel So Close by Calvin Harris, Give me Tonight by Pitbull and Ne-yo. But the staple of high school music is classic hip hop from the past 7 years. Students were loving Sage the Gemini with Gas Pedal and Red Nose. Saweetie was a hit with MY Type. Travis Scott has a few hits and brought folks to the dance floor with Bring it Back and Ayy Ladies. But one of the songs of the night had to be Crank Thank by Soulja Boy. Some newer hip hop songs that students really liked were Magnolia and Shoota by Playboi Carti. Also a few artists seem to do well with high school. Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, and Miley Cyrus got some oohh and aahhs. 

Overall it was a good energy dance. My favorite sighting was students were really loving the Spanish music and no one came storming to the dj booth asking to change the song but made the most of it by dancing. 

Homecoming at Kings Academy

This is the first time I am doing a dance right after a football game. The dance starts at 9 and will finish close to midnight. I had a list of over 300 songs. A lot of the songs were very good dance music. These were the songs I can use for the event and could not stray from the list. It does have a feel good vibe with the music. 

 I was underneath a huge tent and my power was close by. I was able to set up my big boy speakers and lights in an hour time. It did take some more time since I had to take my gear through a few gates from my car. 

 I loved the positive energy. Once I was set up a girl from the leadership team asked if I needed a drink or snacks. Then she came up again and asked if I was ok. That was awesome!!!

At the end of the night I got assistance in putting my gear away which was a big help.

At the beginning of the dance I knew it would be different. At the start, students were at the front and cheering in all the students that came in. Imagine hearing the applause when you walked in! Some students would run in. Some of the artists that were on the list were Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. The list itself was preapproved so the content was student appropriate. I did notice they would like to bounce with the cool house/edm songs.

Overall a fabulous night with Kings Academy. These students were ready to dance and they had the positive vibe!

We had a homecoming event at Independence High School. For homecoming this year we it has been out door events. Independence is a big school so we were in a large area. I had to make sure there was enough sound and light for the area. Sound was easily covered. I brought my (2)3 way speakers plus my other speakers I bring to all my events. My smaller speakers can actually fill up a small gym. I also set up my lights to cover the dance area. 

It was the day before Halloween so I only snuck in two Halloween songs. One was thriller which the students enjoyed but also threw in Ghostbusters since I saw one guy wearing a ghost busters outfit. But the vibe was definitely hip hop and we played a lot of the current songs and a lot of the classic mainstays. I was able to go deep with 00s music then go do a few Spanish Songs then back to the newer stuff. I do like the fact that older house music is popular. Songs by Calvin Harris and Pitbull were popular. Those songs are over 10 years old but they were still hitting. I did notice that at some dances the djs play only one genre but I like to put a lot of different genres there so more folks can get more into. I even went with Taylor Swift and that did hit pretty hard. 

They had food trucks and boba drinks. There was a good vibe happening and the weather was cooperative. There is always the question if the weather is going to be an issue but it was a good feel outside. I love working with schools.